A Look Back at Devastation Evoker in Dragonflight & War Within Wishlist - Editorial

Live Posted 2024/02/02 at 5:44 AM by Preheat

Our Guide Writers have reviewed their specs throughout Dragonflight and share wishlists of what they'd like to see in the War Within. Check out all of our released editorials below.

Dragonflight Retrospectives & War Within Wishlists

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian Druid
Restoration Druid

Augmentation EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage
Brewmaster Monk
Mistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline Priest
Holy PriestShadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhancement Shaman
Restoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemonology WarlockDestruction Warlock

Devastation Retrospective & War Within WishlistDevastation Evoker GameplayFire BreathEternity SurgeEssenceEssence BurstDisintegrateDragonrageMastery: GiantkillerEssence BurstAzure StrikeLiving FlameAmirdrassil, the Dream's HopeNymueHoverMastery: TimewalkerVisual representation of Evoker Range. 25 yards is in green. "Isn’t less range a compensation for something else then? We can’t have one with all the things!"Ice FloesShimmerHoverplay out of range of the bossfun flavorfrustratingThis means that 11 of the 14 (78.5% of them) are dead talents

Raid

General AoE

Power NexusEngulfing BlazeVolatilityCharged BlastEternity's SpanHoned AggressionCausalityImminent DestructionFeed the FlamesFont of MagicArcane VigorEye of InfinityCausalityDisintegratePyreArcane VigorShattering StarEssence Burstmostly VolatilityVolatilityFirestormFeed the FlamesImminent DestructionEngulfing Blaze78.5% of the talents we don't take are never taken in PvE; 64% of them if you include PvP.FirestormFirestormFirestormeven with better pathing it is still not really worth it.FirestormRain of FireBlizzardSnapfireLiving FlameAzure StrikeRaging InfernoFirestormDragonrageFirestormVolatilityFirestormThis means that even the best case scenario for Firestorm is worse than other options.FirestormFirestormFirestormLay WasteOnyx LegacySpatial ParadoxInnervateSpatial ParadoxSpatial ParadoxHero Talent Trees Wishlisthave already been revealedinterview with Blizzard developers to discuss the new Chronowarden Hero TalentsScalecommander

Scalecommander Emberthal

Scalecommander Azurathel

Scalecommander Cindrethresh

Scalecommander Viridia

Sarkareth (Former Scalecommander)

SarkarethDisintegrateEruptionDisintegrateGlittering SurgeMass DisintegrateSearing BreathScorching BombRuby AdeptDisintegrateAbout the AuthorLiquidKeystone MastersTeam LiquidDiscordTwitterYouTubeTwitch

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Comment by lovelywazIsn't this more like Augvokers looking in the back mirror and waving goodbye to other Evokers waiting in the LFG queues to get invited? 😆Comment by WoodknockAll I can read is Mass Desintegrate. Please Blizz, let me become Godzilla.
PS: Firestorm must become Druid's Starfall.Comment by NymrohdIsn't this more like Augvokers looking in the back mirror and waving goodbye to other Evokers waiting in the LFG queues to get invited? 😆Comment by Schnieder6I really wanted to run Firestorm. It just looks cool, and coming from Frost Mage I really wanted that placeable AoE.

And with Aug not bringing new class tree talents feels like a symptom of Blizz just not being ready with the class as a whole for DF. At least from a DPS perspective, maybe Presvokers have a different opinion.Comment by dr7swagI can't play Devastation in M+ even when I host my own keys, people make a scene about it to the point they leave sometimes. In raiding at least, i can soar to the top 5 dmg dealers without being asked to play devastation.Comment by lightsvigilI guess I've been lucky looking at these complaints. My Dragon has been split 50 /50 on my pug runs with what people have asked me to play. It seems the trick is to ask what spec they would prefer and most times I get told to pick one and I pick dev. Have yet to be flamed in any of my keys for not going Aug.Comment by BlightyYea devastation really has one of, if not the worst talent tree in the game. They have like, 1 flex talent (eternity span or honed aggression) depending if there will be cleave dmg or not.

The tree in general is just really boring, there's not really any different "playstyles" it's just, if < 3 targets, press disintegrate, if more press Pyre.

Dev suffers the opposite issue as Arcane, there's not enough to press. Arcane is an over bloated spec, but dev feels completely barren, it feels like something straight out of classic wow.

Their mastery was going to be problematic from the outset. It's fundamentally something that is going to get out of hand as the expansion advances, and then it'll go back to "meh" when we're reset at the start of a new expansion.

Causality should honestly just be a baseline passive. Or at least moved up the tree in such a way that you'll always take it without sacrificing a talent point. There's never a situation you're not taking this talent, and considering it's a capstone, you'd think it would have better competition, but it really doesn't, there's no choice you HAVE to have this or your spec just doesn't function. Imagine if Glimmer of Light was pushed down to capstone region, that's basically Causality for palas.Comment by the9tailMeh Firestorm looks weird - like let dragons be dragons and make firestorm an alternative aoe nuke.Comment by logikulWould love for firestorm to change into something that activates through pyre maybe, perhaps just bake in Feed the Flames. Every time im running a lowbie key and see someone running firestorm i just facepalm. its a great looking spell and i would love for it to be better but it just lacks any realistic functionality as tanks are pretty much always gonna be moving out of the spell within a tick or two.

I would love for both pres/dev to get the longer range and have aug only have longer range with their buffing (not their dmg abilities) and have things such as Fire Breath or Dream Breath still remain how they are. We already have 50yd range on Deep Breath and Dream Flight so this would just be adjusting to those ranges a bit.

I also agree, Nymue is literally the most annoying boss as an evoker, any spec, as you are having to soak and be either unable to reach the boss or players to heal them.Comment by Rainy89Devastation’s biggest problem is Augmentation existing in it’s current state.

There is 0 reason to bring a Devastation evoker when Augmention has access to exclusive utility as outlined in this article, particulalrly in keystones.

The advent of Aug essentially made Devastation irrelevant.Comment by Rainy89.Comment by MoosplauzeInteresting you don't mention the survivability issues that Devoker has been facing and even after some changes is still on the low side of all specs.Comment by AgathonDoes Preheat use they/them pronouns or are they using a gender-neutral template for the first paragraph?Comment by AgathonDevastation’s biggest problem is Augmentation existing in it’s current state.

There is 0 reason to bring a Devastation evoker when Augmention has access to exclusive utility as outlined in this article, particulalrly in keystones.

The advent of Aug essentially made Devastation irrelevant.Comment by MoosplauzeI can't play Devastation in M+ even when I host my own keys, people make a scene about it to the point they leave sometimes. In raiding at least, i can soar to the top 5 dmg dealers without being asked to play devastation.Comment by Leemaster777Yea devastation really has one of, if not the worst talent tree in the game. They have like, 1 flex talent (eternity span or honed aggression) depending if there will be cleave dmg or not.

The tree in general is just really boring, there's not really any different "playstyles" it's just, if < 3 targets, press disintegrate, if more press Pyre.

Dev suffers the opposite issue as Arcane, there's not enough to press. Arcane is an over bloated spec, but dev feels completely barren, it feels like something straight out of classic wow.

Their mastery was going to be problematic from the outset. It's fundamentally something that is going to get out of hand as the expansion advances, and then it'll go back to "meh" when we're reset at the start of a new expansion.

Causality should honestly just be a baseline passive. Or at least moved up the tree in such a way that you'll always take it without sacrificing a talent point. There's never a situation you're not taking this talent, and considering it's a capstone, you'd think it would have better competition, but it really doesn't, there's no choice you HAVE to have this or your spec just doesn't function. Imagine if Glimmer of Light was pushed down to capstone region, that's basically Causality for palas.Comment by GreengrovegrannyI've never seen Blizz kill a brand new spec in one and a half patches, incredible.Comment by Poromaniathere is also inherent problem of our mastery - the higher mastery, the higher dmg - the faster our mastery stops working well, our dmg is really low if you look at dmg of other classes - all our power is built into dragonrage, which us makes really useless outside of it, you need to prolong your dragonrage atleast 4 times (2x both empowers) and if pack dies quickly.. your dragonrage - 36? second burst is dead
also Preheat didnt talk about how extremely squishy evokers are - atleast aug has cheat death
i was in waycreast 23 - i had around 200k dps, while demon hunter and retri has double of thatComment by ScaryfoxI was not expecting Preheat of all people to argue that Devastation Evokers are immobile! That's great he reevaluated his opinion though since I know that had to be annoying.

Still, I'm hoping that the devs can reach some sort of consensus, especially if they're adamant about the Dracthyr not getting access to other classes yet.Comment by Centias

The 25 yard range experiment was tried and failed fantastically. Time to give full range to all Evoker specs. This is the most obvious change and it should have happened already.

Almost all utility that does not directly increase damage that is available to Aug should probably be in the class tree. One of the top specs that needs a 30% threat Reduction is Devastation, and it can't give it to itself.

Onyx Legacy should basically just be combined with Lay Waste, to at least make one okay talent instead of two bad talents.

Along with the previous point, Deep Breath should either be stronger on its own, or made stronger by interactions with other spells, so Devastation REALLY cares about casting it.

Going slightly against the previous point: I would love to see Deep Breath functionally replaced (for Devastation only) by GIGANTIC BLUE LASER that still benefits from all the same talents, so I can just stay in place and spend a couple seconds glassing everything in front of me with a blinding blue beam instead of flying over enemies and looking really dumb, hoping I don't die to unfortunate frontal/AOE timing.

Font of Magic should be a middle-tier talent at most. It just doesn't belong in the capstone level in the slightest.

While Catalyze is an okay talent, it should be better: "Whenever your Blue spells deal damage to a target affected by Fire Breath, they are immediately damaged by Fire Breath again." It's a small change, but it emphasizes using Blue spells on burning targets, and instead of the damage being tied to the tick rate of Fire Breath (which is constant), it's tied to the tick rate of Disintegrate, More haste = faster Disintegrate ticks = more extra Fire Breath damage. It also adds a little extra raw value to Eternity Surge and Azure Strike in AOE when used on burning targets.

Ruby Embers and Engulfing Blaze have both just ended up being weaker than they should be and need a small number adjustment. I doubt it would take very much. Maybe some of the talents that work with Fire Breath's dot can also trigger Ruby Embers damage or extend the dot.

Firestorm either needs a larger area so it's easier to keep targets in it, or it needs to latch onto a target (until they die, then it just stays in that spot instead of fizzling). Or like someone else suggested, make it work like Starfall (though I would rather see Starfall become a ground-targeted AOE because it's a problematic spell.)

Feed the Flames is probably a little better than it sounds in large enough AOE pulls due to Volatility, but 9 sounds like way too many casts for a capstone level talent. I'm thinking more like 6 would be good.

Everburning Flame conceptually sounds like a decent idea due to how many effects on the left side are related to Fire Breath's damage over time, but it just needs to do more. My idea: on top of extending the dot, Red spells also make Fire Breath instantly deal damage again (either just tick again, or flare up and do some AOE damage).

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